Formula 1 descended into chaos with a postponed qualifying session on Saturday due to heavy rain. Therefore, they will attempt to complete qualifying on Sunday morning, prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix. Once again, Lando Norris will be hoping to get the better of his World Championship rival Max Verstappen. The Red Bull driver will have to take a five-place grid penalty for an engine change. Ferrari and Mercedes will also try to spoil the party at the front of the grid.
F1 LIVE | Qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix
Why is qualifying on a Sunday?
The FIA released a statement explaining the decision. "The decision was taken due to the lack of visibility caused by the level of rain we have experienced in the past few hours. There is a lot of standing water on parts of the circuit which renders conditions unsafe.
"As much as we would all like to see competition on track, the safety of drivers, team members, volunteers, officials and spectators is our main priority.A decision on a start time for Qualifying tomorrow morning will be taken as soon as possible," the FIA said.
That's not the only change to the schedule. Due to the weather forecast, a change to the start time of the Brazilian Grand Prix has also been made.
"Following the conditions in São Paulo today the decision was taken not to proceed with Qualifying due to poor visibility, standing water on the track and fading light. Safety is always the paramount consideration in such circumstances and while as much time as possible was given to allow conditions to improve they sadly did not. We have huge appreciation for all the fans that stayed at the circuit in hope of seeing cars on track today," the FIA and Formula 1 said in a statement.
"Therefore the decision has been taken, after consultation with the stewards, to schedule Qualifying for 07:30 local time on Sunday morning ahead of the Grand Prix at 12:30 local. This will ensure we maximise the chances or providing the fans with a day of racing action and both the FIA and Formula 1 believe this time change is necessary and the right thing to do for all our passionate fans," the statement concluded. The next problem is the weather forecast in Brazil. It is due to rain all day, so finding a window where cars can go out on track and complete both sessions could prove to be difficult.
What has happened so far this weekend?
Lando Norris finished fastest in the first and only free practice session, but Max Verstappen was set to go faster before pulling out in the third sector. The Red Bull Racing driver thus kept his powder dry on the soft tyre and finished 14th fastest. Norris finished one-tenth faster than second-placed George Russell, with Oliver Bearman finishing third fastest. The young British driver has replaced Kevin Magnussen at Haas this weekend after the Danish driver was sick.
Oscar Piastri topped sprint qualifying at Interlagos and will start from pole position in the Sprint event. Lando Norris joined the Australian on the front row of the grid, while Charles Leclerc rounded off the top 3. Except for the two McLaren drivers, everybody had only a single shot in SQ3 at Interlagos. Norris could not win the session, but started ahead of his title rival Verstappen on Saturday, as the Dutchman finished in P4. Carlos Sainz finished in P5, ahead of George Russell.
After McLaren's team orders, Lando Norris won the Sprint in Brazil ahead of Piastri and Max Verstappen. The Dutchman however was given a five-second penalty for VSC infringement, and therefore, got relegated to P4 behind Charles Leclerc. Currently, the gap between the two drivers stands at 44 points.
So who said Max would nail Norris in the wet? Oh yes I remember. Well, I won't embarrass them.
POLE for NORRIS!!
Starting to feel sorry for Williams and Aston already. Both teams, both cars crashed. Hopefully we don't miss any drivers from race cause of that.
I'll be amazed if they fix that in time. But it's been done before.
This is a VERY expensive session for teams and a nightmare for mechanics.
Wow. If Williams fix both cars it will be quite the feat.
So confused how come such a delay and then immediate if it comes down to safety then it should be immediate red flag, unfortunate really RB should’ve tried to send Max out earlier but again delay in one session and immediate in another doesn’t make sense as both cars were destroyed not moving out of the way so if we talking safety no delay was needed with stroll but this is how the cookie crumbles, hopefully Max can refocus and pull off an amazing drive back in the points and limit the damage
Never said it wasn’t in the rules just confused as the reasoning they took in the delays mate as to what made the difference between the two crashes for one to be immediate red flag and another to be delayed
It's the the G forces of the diffrent crashes. Higher Gforce crashes immediate Redflag and lower Gforce crashes get evaluated, that how I understand it .
That's part of the assessment. That's why we see Yellow then double yellow then Red flags, for some crashes and for others straight Redflags .
And when Alonso goes out, BOOM red flag out right away....
But with Stroll in worse place possible, we waited some 40 seconds...
This isn't moments away from end of session. The last one was and they tried to allow cars to finish their laps.
Again it took sooooooo long for red flag the qualy. How long Stroll was standing there in worse place possible, if another car would have crashed into him, again could have been terrible result.
Race control in Brazil is just terrible. It was all too clear yesterday with Hülkenberg walking next to race track, while top3 going past him full speed.
Anyway nice interesting results already. When it rains you see how good soembody is. It's less about the car and more about the driver then.
RedBull's fault, Max will come through the field Perez will go backwards.
Alonso is my bet for pole
It would be amazing when Alonso wins later today. That is something I would really enjoy.
Edit: Damn, there goes my hope of something fun.
Big ask now as he will most likely take a penalty for new gearbox if indeed they manage to rebuild his car in time.
Still going to be a great wet race though.
Well, you sure were right with this comments. It was a good race. Too bad for Alonso, but I was amused by how Ocon and Gasly performed in the Alpines.
I don t know why some Verstappen fans said the championship it s over..Verstappen is still in the fight for the title....
Because they're angry and believe if Max doesn't win it MUST be rigged and a conspiracy. You've seen it here in the last couple days, how irrational some have been with what's been said.
Two prep laps when you need to put a banker in?♂️, terrible team decision. Only rain can save Max's day now.
Lewis is starting around Max's postion asleep well , that's always spicy.
Farce of a sport and 'championship'...
FIA not even trying to hide it anymore! What a pathetic bunch
At least give ma a chance to get my popcorn first because the conspiracy theories come out.
Max was down on the time he needed anyway. Jeez.
So please explain how did they pull it off.
Form what I hear Pérez say , and what we saw ,Redbull kept them in the pits too long and had Max do 2 prep laps .
Let's hear your explanation, please don't forget to include Hebert
And how the cars crash on purpose to allow the Red Flags to thwart Max.
I must say it's starting to look suspicious. I personally believe race control are just too much of a amateurs than biased. But you never know. Anyway what we've seen is weird. Stroll standing there in worse place possible, is clear red flag. How it takes then some 40 seconds to activate it, is the question. And then Alonso going off and red flag activated straight away....(like it should)
Race director, getting it wrong, never happened before * cough * cough . It's within the rules that the RD can determine when a redflag is called.
Yes the rule says "when 'any' (not 'all') car crashes, the red flag must be shown. The Race Director has overriding authority over the red flag" :)))
Also, "when a car crashes, the red flag must be shown on the FOLLOWING lap". Haha!
The fia are doing there best to help lando because he cant do it by him self .when first to red flags came they acted fast but when stroll went off had to let lando do his lap .
Show me your proof. Lando is doing it by himself by driving the fastest times. Haven't you noticed? :)
Man, The Joost and Mavric show is on full song.
Well Herbert was remote-controlling all the cars and forcing them off with Jedi mind tricks :)
Real driver condition out there. Some guys with slow cars can make it further than in normal condition. Hopefully we have some surprises.
Lewis as this season is ending is just simply not happy with his car ? and it's getting worst and worst , but Russell was flying, so that means Russell is simply better than Lewis ,but not such a large delta. Setups maybe ? but I cant wait for him to end this season .
My goodness... how unworthy is Lando, and how incredible lucky he is yet again?? How many help does the lad need? If Lewis had remained some of his rain driving skills...the championship would have almost been decided here...
Land gose to next round will both rbr out should been red flag stright away like the other red flags
Unworthy? Again AD'21.
Let's not forget Lando gave up a win for Piastri earlier in the year.
Hi vegan first red flag by col from williams and coupel yellow flags bit rain make more intresting
Wow, Lewis out , and Norris nearly out. I think Lewis was working with Norris so he could get to Q2, that British connection ?
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